The SPICES of life

The Christian belief is that Christ is still present with us through the spirit and that we have joyous union with him.

With that belief at the center of our worship as Christians, how is it possible that many of our worship services, like Sunday morning, are bland representations of what church can be?

This came to the forefront of my attention because a friend of mine attended an evangelical church in her area, finding the service to be kind and yet uninspiring.

I am certainly not suggesting that all churches are this way. But, I would venture to say that, if we are being honest with one another, there are more bland churches than we would like to acknowledge.

The latest research from Pew and Gallup both find what we intuitively already know to be true about faith and religion in America: that more and more people are no longer believing in God and over 1/3 of Americans never attend church.

If Christians hope to reverse the trend, I don’t think that it should happen from a political level or some other outside force. I think that movement only comes through a renewal of what makes each body of believers distinct.

For example, I am in the Evangelical Friends tradition. Thinkers and theologians of this tradition have made a handy acronym to describe historically what made the Friends tradition “flavorful”: SPICES. When a person comes into a Friends church, they should notice the difference because we are presenting the story of our church through the lens of these SPICES.

Simplicity - Quaker/Friends used to live out the ideal of simplicity in everything they did. Their clothes, their homes, their church buildings, their business practices, their leadership structure, everything was simple. The more simple life was, the more they could focus on God.

Peace - Quaker/Friends were nonviolent pacifists. But in this age, peace is not only in global wars but internal. Friends should not only call for peace in armed conflicts but also should also be unhurried, non-anxious individuals.

Integrity - This is the belief that you should be a single person, not someone with multiple personalities depending on who you are around. To be a person of integrity means you are the same on Sunday as you are on Friday night. It means you give the same grace to a stranger as you do your beloved grandmother. It means you care for your neighbor next door and across the globe.

Community - When people experienced a Friends’ community, they should see clearly how much they love being with one another.

Equality - Quaker/Friends were some of the first to call out the injustices of slavery, of unequal education opportunities, and the abusive prison system. They promoted women leaders in the church. They endorsed a view of the same divine light in each believer.

Stewardship - This belief is much larger than taking care of the environment. To be a steward is to make every place you have influence over better than when you got there. It is to participate in reconciling all things to God.

If we live out our distinctives, will not people taste the flavor of our life?

The church is not just the Sunday morning gathering, but also the believer who goes to work, to the ball game, to the grocery store. Do you live distinct, in a way that people are able to see Christ in you?

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